Marine Research Student Colloquium
Marine Research Student Colloquium CANCELLED
11 Jan 2021
Dear College of Charleston Community,
We regret to announce that the Marine Graduate Student Colloquium Committee has unanimously voted to cancel the Colloquium at Patriots Point for Spring 2021 (rescheduled from Fall 2020). The recent rise in coronavirus cases, increase in percent positivity, and predicted surge in coronavirus cases are not conducive to safely gathering off-campus.
Be safe,
Drs. Heather Spalding and Dan McGlinn
Co-Chairs
Colloquium Committee
Saturday, February 27, 2021 at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum
- Schedule
- 2019 Complete Program
- Oral Presentation Abstracts
- Poster Presentation Abstracts
- Best Presentation Awards
Virtual Keynote Speaker
Brian Bowen, Research Professor
Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
MARINE CONSERVATION GENETICS
from ancient mariners to future biodiversity
The presentation covers the application of genetics to marine conservation in three 20-minute modules. Part 1 uses the Orlog metaphor from Norse mythology to examine the multiple roles that genetics plays in marine conservation, with examples from the Hawaiian Archipelago. Conservation programs must protect the threads of life as the arrive from the past (phylogenetics), thrive in the present (ecology) and project into the future (evolution). These three goals are embodied by the Norn sisters of Norse mythology, whose names correspond to past, present, and future. The phylogenetic and ecological goals are firmly embedded in conservation, but preserving the materials for future biodiversity is a new and exciting frontier.
Part 2 is a case history on how genetics has reshaped the conservation of sea turtles. In one of the earliest applications of DNA data to conservation issues, mtDNA studies demonstrated that reproductive behavior in sea turtle is guided by natal homing. After a maturation period spanning decades and thousands of kms, sea turtles return to the vicinity of their natal beach to mate and nest, as indicated by strong (and sometimes diagnostic) shifts in haplotype frequencies between nesting colonies. Each nesting colony is an isolated management unit which will thrive or perish without input from other nesting colonies. In some cases, mtDNA haplotypes serve as barcodes to indicate the natal origin of turtles impacted by fisheries and other human activities.
Part 3 is focused on future evolutionary diversity, in particular the origins of tropical marine biodiversity. The Coral Triangle between Indonesia, Philippines, and New Guinea hosts the highest marine biodiversity on the planet, including >75% of worldwide coral diversity and >35% of reef fish diversity. Phylogenetic studies reveal that more than half of the reef fishes in the Indo-Pacific have origins in the Coral Triangle biodiversity hotspot. On the edges of the Indo-Pacific, peripheral habitats including Hawaii and the Red Sea have much lower diversity, but high levels of endemism (species found nowhere else). It was long assumed that these endemism hotspots were evolutionary dead-ends that received species via colonization, but did not export new species. However, recent phylogeographic studies have demonstrated that these endemism hotspots can both receive species from biodiversity hotspots, and export new species, in a process labelled biodiversity feedback.
Colloquium Keynote Speakers to date
The Marine Research Student Colloquium of the Graduate Program in Marine Biology (GPMB) was established in 1998, to increase awareness of research activities by students and faculty affiliated with GPMB; to provide graduate students with experience in making scientific presentations; and to promote interactions among faculty and students conducting research in marine biology.
The following distinguished researchers joined us as keynote speakers in previous years:
2019 Dr. Sheila N. Patek, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences, Duke University
2018 Dr. Sandra Brooke, Florida State University
2017 Dr. Billie Swalla, University of Washington
2016 Dr. David Hastings, Eckerd College
2015 Dr. Daniel Huber, University of Tampa
2014 Dr. Dean Grubbs, Florida State University & Coastal Marine Laboratory
2013 Dr. Felicia Coleman, Florida State University & Coastal Marine Laboratory
2012 Dr. Thomas Near, Yale University
2011 Dr. John Bruno, University of North Carolina
2010 Dr. Win Watson, University of New Hampshire
2009 Dr. Erik Sotka, CofC & Dr. Geoff Scott, Hollings Marine Laboratory
2009 Dr. Steve Palumbi, Hopkins Marine Station & Stanford University
2008 Dr. James T. Carlton, Williams College & Williams-Mystic Program
2007 Dr. Peter Wainwright, University of California, Davis
2006 Dr. Jeffrey Levinton, State University of New York at Stony Brook
2005 Dr. Margaret McFall-Ngai, University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School
2004 Dr. Malcolm Shick, School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine
2003 Dr. Walter Boynton, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Univ. of Maryland
2002 Dr. Larry Crowder, Duke Marine Laboratory, Duke University
2001 Dr. Lauren Mullineaux, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
2000 Dr. John Pearse, Institute of Marine Science, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
1999 Dr. Ken Tenore, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, University of Maryland
Additional Resources
- Guidelines for talks and posters for presenters